The extent of bullying against students with learning disabilities according to the age variable

Abstract

Bullying is a common behavior among school students and a serious problem addressed by many relevant stakeholders. The Ministry of Education puts plans to address this issue, but need more feedback from the field to feed its strategies and programs. Therefore, this study aims at` investigating the degree of bullying among students with learning disabilities (LD) in the Asir Region and exploring the relationship between bullying and age. The study used the survey methodology to collect data, and for which a questionnaire was developed and distributed to a sample of 350 families of children with LDs enrolled in schools of Asir General Directorate of Education. The sample responses to the questionnaire were analyzed using the SPSS statistical package. The study revealed that bullying behavior was at a low level among the sample of the study. The results showed no statistically significant differences in the level of bullying among children with LDs at the basic educational stage due to the variable of age. The study concludes that awareness programs should be developed for teachers to help them identify indicators associated with bullying, in addition to future studies on the phenomenon and its relationship to other variables, such as social anxiety and emotional intelligence.